Toshiba to Develop Smart Glasses with Vuzix Corporation

Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI) announced plans to build a custom pair of smart glasses for Toshiba based on the recent M300’s. Vuzix expects to generate over a $1 million dollars in revenue from this development deal, with development and purchase orders expected to begin in the first quarter of this year. This will create a create a major distribution channel that the company expects could sell thousands of glasses every year beginning in the year 2018.

Toshiba canceled the release of its wearvue smart glasses just over a year ago; a clear validation that Vuzix is a leader in smart glasses technology. With regulation hurdles behind the company in both Europe and the U.S., it would seem likely that other large technology companies will look to partner with Vuzix.

Vuzix is no rookie when it comes to building cutting-edge emerging technology. The company holds 49 patents, 43 additional patents pending along with IP licenses all in the world of Video Eyewear. Keeping the record from 2005-2017 for winning the coveted Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation, it’s no wonder they’re a leading supplier of Smart-Glasses, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets.

In a press release issued, Vuzix President and CEO Paul Travers had this to say, "We are excited to enter into this partnership with Toshiba and believe it represents a strong vote of confidence in our capabilities and recognition of our leading position in the wearable technology space. Additionally, the agreement demonstrates how we are leveraging and partnering our industry leading technology with top tier global partners. We trust that this will be the first of many ongoing collaborations between the firms."

Followed by a statement from Carl Pinto, VP of marketing and product development at Toshiba Client Solutions Division, "We have selected Vuzix as our new smart glasses development and manufacturing partner because we are very impressed with Vuzix' current line of smart glasses and other technology that the Company has in development. We believe that Toshiba can leapfrog other wearable technology products with Vuzix' support and look forward to a very successful collaboration between the companies."

Now with this development deal with milestone payments totaling over $1 million dollars with mega brand Toshiba under its belt, it would appear that the Vizux story has hit its inflection point. I think it's safe to say we can only expect to see this forward momentum continue.